Sin Eaters

“It would be perfectly normal for a person to have doubts about the morality of what we just asked you to do” Edward Norton’s character says to Jeremy Renner’s character in the recently released “Bourne Legacy”. A movie following the saga of CIA experiments with super spies that lead to Jason Bourne.

Within this movie there was a distinct part that stood out to me in relevance to pastors and leaders. In the movie Edward Norton has a flashback to when he first met Jeremy Renner’s character and the encounter that went on.

“Do you know what a sin eater is?... Well that’s what we are. We are the sin eaters. That means that we take the moral excrement that we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our cause can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.”

This stands out to me in multiple ways.

How we are sin eaters

We as Christians are called to be sin eaters In this way:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt 5:43-48)

Jesus speaking to a group of people bound to follow every letter of the law saying to them - don’t tattle, don’t turn in a report of everyone’s sin, you be sin eaters. You take the awfulness you find in people and you bury it down deep in forgiveness and let Me take care of it.

- Paul -

“For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.” (2 Cor 12:20)

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Eph 4:31)

- Peter -

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”

(1Pet 2:1)

- James -

“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” (James 4:11)

We don’t think of the Christian life as a war most of the time. We like to think of it as a sweet rest through difficulty, a religion for security when we don’t understand the world, or perhaps someone to love and accept us when it feels that no one else does. But in reality it is a war. When we come to the point where we say that we are following Jesus we put on a suit of armor and we march into battle. We battle sin, in others and ourselves, we battle the world, and we battle Satan. Part of that battle is the attitude we take toward others. Our inclination is to defame, to tear them down and to gossip about them. When asked about people the easiest road is to talk badly about them. In leadership (whether in a church or corporation) it is easier to blame someone else within leadership than it is to take a stand as a unified group. When someone from church asks or complains to you about a decision it is easier to blame another pastor and agree with that person than it is to take up that decision as your own and defend it and talk through the issue with that person.

This is sin eating. This is taking that which we don’t fully love and taking responsibility for it, care over it, and concern about it even though its not our fault or decision. This is not defaming others or gossiping about them when it becomes easy to do, but rather forgiving and moving on. This is seeing past the failures of other people to the positive side because you realize that everyone is sinful and makes mistakes. This is one of the battles within the war.

How we are NOT sin eaters

Sin eating is not sin Hiding:

What this is NOT is that we take our own failures and sins and bury them down deep so that we come across as sinless to anyone. We are to be sin eaters when it comes to others, giving of ourselves in order to love them and forgive them and see past their failures realizing our own sins and failures. We are not to hide our own sin nor are we to pretend that our sin doesn’t exist and that we are somehow superior. This is how we lose the battle of “sin eating” with others. When we begin to think that we have hidden away those things we hope no one knows about in our own lives then it becomes a battle within a battle. Now we are fighting to hide our own failures which comes across to others as superiority and defeats the purpose for which Jesus, and Paul and Peter and James spoke about.

Sin eating is not sin denying:

What this is also NOT is believing that people are basically good and that we just need a little help to make it along the road. God created us to be dependent on Him. That has not changed with any generation of people. Denying the basic sinful nature of humanity is not helpful at all. What I am talking about is specifically battling the sinful desire to use our mouths to do harm AND the sinful desire to believe and feel that we are somehow superior to others based on our putting them down verbally.

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. (Prov 10:11)

So how this works out practically is that we no longer gossip, slander, or use opportunities to speak ill of one another. And we think about what we are saying instead of spouting off the first thing that comes to our minds when we hear a specific name, event, or decision.

Where sin eating stops

There will come times when we all will have to be honest about the job someone is doing or how bad someone was or is. This battle does not mean that we never say anything negative. Sin eating stops in at least two places:

When its unloving for others:

When you have the opportunity to warn someone of a bad mechanic and you don’t - you probably have not loved them as you should have. When you are disgruntled with a service that you got and you go home to call all of your friends to complain about it then you have not forgiven the sin (or eaten it) and you need to repent. Most likely you are offended because you have an entitled attitude. “Sin eating” means that we overlook offenses to us - it does NOT mean that we don’t warn others of potential harms. It is okay to tell your neighbors that a convicted child molester has moved into the neighborhood. It is not okay to call your neighbors and warn them that a woman whose kids are not as disciplined as you would like them to be goes for a walk at 2:00pm so let your dog out to bark at them. Maybe these aren’t good examples but I hope you see the point. There is a difference in common sense warnings and gossip.

When it negates reality:

I am in a debate with my sister-in-law about the way we view life. She is an eternal optimist and I an eternal (or there abouts) pessimist. The difference?

She expects great things - and often is disappointed

I expect negative things - and am often surprised.

“Sin eating” is a problem when it causes you to overlook the real parts of life. People die, get hurt, say stupid things, and hurt each other. When overlooking an offense becomes something that keeps you from seeing reality then it has gone to far. Denying reality is not how we cope with the world around us. When you get to a point where you are always expecting the greatest out of people and life it is often then that you have moved past forgiving quickly and started looking for good and moved into your own world. A vital part of “sin eating” is being able to identify sin. Yes, sin eating is identifying sin, but leaving the judging of that sin up to God. Our job is to lead people to Jesus so that He can wash them of that sin and create in them a new person. Constantly losing touch with reality and expecting the unrealistic will only lead to disappointment and frustration. We have to keep in touch with the reality that sin is real and we all do it.

In the movie Edward Norton was talking about taking something immoral and keeping it quiet so that people could believe the best about an immoral activity. Applied to life I am talking about taking the sins and failures of others and forgiving and loving them (by not bad mouthing them) so that the gospel can take root and work in their lives.

Sin eating summarized

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This passage shows us what love is within the body of Christ, but it points to a reality: we will have to employ patience, kindness, humility, selflessness, and so on which is a practice of overlooking the problems in others. You only have to be patient with those who are annoying and frustrating, you only have to be kind to to those who are rude, you only employee bearing all things when there are things to bear you don’t want to bear. This passage is telling us to do things we will need to do when we don’t want to do it. If it were easy or natural we would need no instruction.

Proverbs 17:9

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

Further, this proverb indicates there is a time to overlook an offense and to eat sin and bury it down deep. When is that? For the purpose of keeping unity between people. But here is the caveat and it was spelled out in Edward Nortons words “…so that the rest of our cause can stay pure…”

We cannot overlook an offense when it means that the person we are overlooking will be continuing in sin by overlooking it. We cannot overlook an offense when the offense is part of a long line of problematic, sinful, or maladaptive behaviors that will lead that person away from obedience and Christ. We cannot eat sin where by eating it, we are taking the easy road of not confronting what is harmful to the person we love. We cannot eat sin and overlook an offense when the cause wasn’t pure to begin with.

This is a matter of discernment, as to when we eat sin, and when we employee Matthew 18 and Jesus words on confrontation of sin. May God give wisdom.